PA chief negotiator Erekat: No difference between ISIS terrorism and ‘Israeli occupation terrorism’
Headline: “Erekat: The PLO’s plan will remain in place until the establishment of the State of Palestine”
“[PLO] Executive Committee Secretary [and PLO Chief Negotiator and Fatah Central Committee member] Dr. Saeb Erekat in a press statement discussed the general political situation and the changes that have started to take place in the region and in the world since the US presidential elections…
[Erekat said that] there are large changes that cannot be denied. However, we as Palestinians have not stopped our contact with the new American administration on all levels since Jan. 20 [2017] (i.e., since US President Donald Trump took office), as head of the Palestinian [General] Intelligence [Service] Majid Faraj held a number of meetings and conversations with his colleagues in the US . Afterwards, the head of the American [Central] Intelligence Agency [Mike Pompeo] came and met with [PA] President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah [on Feb . 15, 2017]. We as Palestinians, as the president said, will work alongside the Trump administration with full positivity on the two-state solution on the 1967 borders, the peace process option, and the illegality of settlement. The transfer of the American embassy or anything similar means the elimination of the peace process. Our positions are known and very clear, and we have conveyed messages to the American administration in a clear and precise manner. We are part of the region that is experiencing the phenomenon of ISIS and the rest of the revelations of terror. We are against harming Islam, and we are an inseparable part of the war against terror in this region. However, whoever wants to defeat ISIS and ISIS’ terror must start by drying up the swamp of the Israeli occupation, as it is the worst type of terror. There is no difference between a criminal who kills a journalist on behalf of ISIS in Syria and Iraq and a criminal who sets the infant Ali Dawabsheh , his mother, his father, and his brother on fire in Duma. (See below, Jewish suspects in this crime are awaiting trial -Ed.) This is the apartheid culture and the culture of hate. [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu says: ‘Let us fight terror in the region.’ However, he is not fighting terror. The one fighting it is the Muslim Arab soldier, the Iraqi, Syrian, and Jordanian soldiers, and Israel has no connection to the war on terror in the region, as [Netanyahu] is trying to spread in the media, and particularly in the foreign news agencies.”
Duma arson attack - On July 31, 2015, two Palestinian houses in the West Bank village of Duma were set afire by Molotov cocktails thrown through their windows. 18-month-old Ali Dawabsheh was murdered in this attack, as was his father, Saad Dawabsheh and mother, Reham Dawabsheh, who both died of their injuries later. The only survivor of the attack was the couple’s other son, 4-year-old Ahmad, who suffered burns on 60% of his body and was treated in Israel. Israeli leaders and citizens from all sectors of society condemned this attack, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas that all Israelis were disgusted by the crime, adding, “We will not countenance terrorism of any kind.” He ordered the security forces "to use all means at their disposal to apprehend the murderers and bring them to justice forthwith." Israeli Police has treated the attack as a nationalistic crime carried out by Jewish extremists in revenge for Palestinian terror attacks. In early December 2015, Israeli police arrested several Jewish extremists who were believed to have been involved in the attack, and in January 2016, Israel indicted 21-year-old Amiram Ben Uliel, a member of the radical Jewish group “Hilltop Youth,” with three counts of murder, attempted murder, arson and conspiracy to commit a nationalistically-motivated crime. Ben Uliel confessed to police that he carried out the attack in revenge for the killing of Malachi Rosenfeld, an Israeli who was shot and killed in a terror attack in the West Bank. Ben Uliel's defense has claimed that his confession was made under torture and suspicions have been raised that the arson and three other subsequent arson attacks against other Dawabshe family members are part of a family feud. Ben Uliel's trial is still pending. A minor whose name remains under a police gag order was also charged.
“[PLO] Executive Committee Secretary [and PLO Chief Negotiator and Fatah Central Committee member] Dr. Saeb Erekat in a press statement discussed the general political situation and the changes that have started to take place in the region and in the world since the US presidential elections…
[Erekat said that] there are large changes that cannot be denied. However, we as Palestinians have not stopped our contact with the new American administration on all levels since Jan. 20 [2017] (i.e., since US President Donald Trump took office), as head of the Palestinian [General] Intelligence [Service] Majid Faraj held a number of meetings and conversations with his colleagues in the US . Afterwards, the head of the American [Central] Intelligence Agency [Mike Pompeo] came and met with [PA] President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah [on Feb . 15, 2017]. We as Palestinians, as the president said, will work alongside the Trump administration with full positivity on the two-state solution on the 1967 borders, the peace process option, and the illegality of settlement. The transfer of the American embassy or anything similar means the elimination of the peace process. Our positions are known and very clear, and we have conveyed messages to the American administration in a clear and precise manner. We are part of the region that is experiencing the phenomenon of ISIS and the rest of the revelations of terror. We are against harming Islam, and we are an inseparable part of the war against terror in this region. However, whoever wants to defeat ISIS and ISIS’ terror must start by drying up the swamp of the Israeli occupation, as it is the worst type of terror. There is no difference between a criminal who kills a journalist on behalf of ISIS in Syria and Iraq and a criminal who sets the infant Ali Dawabsheh , his mother, his father, and his brother on fire in Duma. (See below, Jewish suspects in this crime are awaiting trial -Ed.) This is the apartheid culture and the culture of hate. [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu says: ‘Let us fight terror in the region.’ However, he is not fighting terror. The one fighting it is the Muslim Arab soldier, the Iraqi, Syrian, and Jordanian soldiers, and Israel has no connection to the war on terror in the region, as [Netanyahu] is trying to spread in the media, and particularly in the foreign news agencies.”
Duma arson attack - On July 31, 2015, two Palestinian houses in the West Bank village of Duma were set afire by Molotov cocktails thrown through their windows. 18-month-old Ali Dawabsheh was murdered in this attack, as was his father, Saad Dawabsheh and mother, Reham Dawabsheh, who both died of their injuries later. The only survivor of the attack was the couple’s other son, 4-year-old Ahmad, who suffered burns on 60% of his body and was treated in Israel. Israeli leaders and citizens from all sectors of society condemned this attack, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas that all Israelis were disgusted by the crime, adding, “We will not countenance terrorism of any kind.” He ordered the security forces "to use all means at their disposal to apprehend the murderers and bring them to justice forthwith." Israeli Police has treated the attack as a nationalistic crime carried out by Jewish extremists in revenge for Palestinian terror attacks. In early December 2015, Israeli police arrested several Jewish extremists who were believed to have been involved in the attack, and in January 2016, Israel indicted 21-year-old Amiram Ben Uliel, a member of the radical Jewish group “Hilltop Youth,” with three counts of murder, attempted murder, arson and conspiracy to commit a nationalistically-motivated crime. Ben Uliel confessed to police that he carried out the attack in revenge for the killing of Malachi Rosenfeld, an Israeli who was shot and killed in a terror attack in the West Bank. Ben Uliel's defense has claimed that his confession was made under torture and suspicions have been raised that the arson and three other subsequent arson attacks against other Dawabshe family members are part of a family feud. Ben Uliel's trial is still pending. A minor whose name remains under a police gag order was also charged.